Various semiconductor devices, such as laser diodes, power transistors or central processing unit chips, may dissipate large amounts of waste power over very small areas. This may produce a very high heat flux that can be removed to extend the service life and proper operation of such components. Because these components have relatively low operating temperatures, successful heat removal may necessitate minimal heat flow resistance between the heat source and the heat sink.
Some current heat removal techniques for such applications may involve microchannel cooling of individual semiconductor devices. For at least some of these cooling configurations, relatively large microchannel passages may be used. These passages may require high coolant flow rates to provide low thermal resistances, and may be limited in their thermal performance even at such flow rates.
Various disadvantages may result from these high flow rates. Higher flow rates may incur larger flow resistance penalties in the system, and associated cooling system components such as pumps, lines, filters, valves, reservoirs, and radiators may require increased flow capacity. Additionally, the high velocities of the coolant flow may lead to erosion of various components, including the walls of the microchannel cooling passages within the cooler itself, and this may cause increased thermal resistance and decreased service life.